Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!
This book gets you thinking and questioning who murdered who and what in the world is going to happen next. The last two chapters made me gasp and they threw me for a loop. If you like a love story with thrills and twist then this is the book for you! One thing i ponder is what happens to ruby. Maybe a part two?? Idk— one could hope!

This novel had really strong character development. The plot was intriguing as well. A solid read that was enjoyable. The setting and backdrop were also well-crafted. Thank you for the advanced copy for review.

The title character of this book is Ruby McTavish a wealthy southern widow with a trail of dead husbands. Ruby's life while extremely wealthy has had alot of upheaval and disfunction. Her solution late in life is adopt a foster son and make him her "lucky heir".
The story is told from the point of view of her foster son and his wife. They reckon with the legacy that Ruby has left, as well as the long twisted history of the McTavish family.
I felt this book was a new direction for Rachel Hawkins and she did a great job with a gothic thriller. The characters were well developed with little details revealed along the way. There were a few twists that popped up but I think the real strength of this story was the McTavish family and their complicated heritage.
This is a great book for a litle suspense and mystery. A strong addition to Hawkins bookshelf.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ruby, North Carolina's richest woman with a notorious past, passes and her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with her estate and his inheritance. He turns it down and makes for the mountains of Colorado, where he meets and marries Jules. When his uncle passes some years later, they're brought back to the Ashby House and they get wrapped up in the mystery surrounding Ruby.

Rachel Hawkins was one of the authors that got me back into reading (The Wife Upstairs), so I may be biased in reading her work, but this was a FIVE STAR read! I was hooked, the story moved along, and I found myself fighting my eyelids to finish it because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't keep reading!

This story is about Ruby McTavish, a little girl who was lost in the woods at the age of 3 and miraculously discovered almost an year later and returned back to her millionaire parents who practically was North Carolina royalty. Growing up she felt something amiss in her life. It didn’t help that she then married 4 times only for her husbands to die tragically all 4 times. Why is this woman so unlucky in love?
The story begins after her death, with her adopted son now the sole heir to her and her ancestors immense wealth. Now the sole heir must return to his estate with his wife Jules to handle things with his not-so-happy relatives who are McTavishes by blood.

This is my first Rachel Hawkins and I’m bowled over by her writing! This was so fast-paced with multiple POV’s including Ruby in the form of letters she had written before she died and where she reveals her darkest secrets. I LOVED this family drama and practically devoured this book. The characters are well fledged out and the multiple POV’s helps to unfold the events in at a great pace: there are multiple twists, right up to the very last page.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for an arc of this book for my honest opinion:

When Ruby McTavish dies, she leaves everything, including the Ashby House, to her adopted son Camden, much to the dismay of the rest of the family. But Camden wants nothing to do with her estate and moves across the country to get away. He meets and marries Jules, and together they return home to Ashby House after the death of his uncle.

The story alternates between Camden, Jules, and Ruby as narrators. Camden and Jules share present day narrating while also shedding light on how they met one another and the secrets they brought to their relationship. Ruby shares her story via letters that highlight her tragic life, from her disappearance/kidnapping as a young child to each of her relationships with her four husbands and what led to each of their demise.

There were so many twists and turns in the story that it was hard to keep up. Each secret that was revealed made sense, kept me turning the pages, and even left me guessing which direction the author was going to take the story, and how they were going to wrap everything up in the end. This author's books have been hit or miss for me with this one being more of a hit than her last one.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review.

This was a slow start for me. Finally getting to do a review from a book off of Netgalley! 😬
This book definitely had some twists. I wasn’t expecting Jules to be apart of the scandal, even thought she fell in love with Camden. Overall, a good first read by Rachel Hawkins. I am excited to read more books by this author.

When she was a toddler, Ruby McTavish went missing from a family picnic in the mountains near their North Carolina home. Missing for almost a year, there was always speculation about whether the child who was returned to them was really Ruby. Almost 70 years later, Ruby's adopted son gets an email telling him that it's time for a reckoning and he needs to come home.
Psychological fiction with multiple plot twists. Just when you think you know what's going on, there is a twist in the story. I liked this novel much more than the author's previous book The Villa. If you liked The Maid's Diary with its twisty plot and alternating narrators, you'll enjoy Hawkins' upcoming book, due to come out in January 2024.

✨ARC review ✨

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Release date: 01/09/24!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There is nothing like a death to bring out the worst in a family. Especially when it’s a wealthy family & they are not happy about the will.

When Ruby passes away - she leaves everything to her adopted son Camden. He cares little about the inheritance and leaves the toxic family. He begins a new life & now lives with his wife Jules.

10 years later, he reluctantly returns to the house. The family drama begins instantly - secrets, betrayals & lies come back to life.
This makes people start to question - is everyone who they say they are?

Rachel does it again with a page turning thriller with all the plot twists. It keeps you glued to the book. I highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy!

Thank you for giving me the chance to read this book while on vacation! I wasn’t prepared for the introduction & it took me a bit to understand what was happening with all the characters. But I enjoyed it and would read more from this author.

First off, this was my favorite Rachel Hawkins books even though it took way too long for me to get into it. Once I got into the story, I couldn’t put this down. A solid 4 stars!

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this title.

The Heiress is a bit complicated - one of those stories that unfolds as you read it. It centers around a wealthy North Carolina family with an interesting history - the matriarch Ruby was kidnapped as a child, then married and widowed 4 times, childless, she adopts Camden, who is resented by his aunt, uncle and cousins. Camden escapes to California and marries Jules after Ruby dies but they are talked into coming back to NC to deal with the estate that Camden has inherited. The cousins are all pretty terrible, and Ruby, Cam, and Jules all have done some terrible things too. The most interesting part of the book is Ruby's story, which is told through flashbacks in her letters.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for my Advanced Readers Copy of this book!

Ruby McTavish has led quite the life. As a child, she was kidnapped in the woods behind her home, found months later. As an adult, she has been married and widowed 4 times, extremely wealthy and owner of the grand Ashby House. Upon Ruby's death she leaves her bank account and the Ashby House to her adopted son, Camden, who wants nothing to do with the money, the other McTavish's or the house. Ten years later Camden is asked to return with his wife Jules. The elegant Ashby House is filled with secrets and so is the McTavish Family. Is Ruby who she says she was all those years? The answers will shock you.

I have enjoyed every book I have read by Rachel Hawkins. I love that there are always twists and turns that I never see coming. The Heiress is no different, full of questions that keep the pages turning. Written in part present tense with the past being told in letters from Ruby.

Hawkins is always a delight to read. Highly recommend!

Oh my goodness...I really liked this book. it was so interesting and I appreciated that it was told from Jules, Cam viewpoint with Ruby letters sprinkled in. Was very surprised on how Jules was so open to the money when she knew Cam was not. Such a great story plot and so many twists and turns. Ruby or I should say Mrs. Killmore seemed like such a character. s everyone who they seem to be? No. Does everyone have secrets? You bet the do and plenty of them! The drama, and the wild twists and turns kept me glued to the pages. This is a fun read and would be a great book club discussion book.

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of "The Heiress" by Rachel Hawkins. Rachel is one of my favorite authors so I was overjoyed to be given early access to this book. I feel like every book she writes gets better and better with each release. The Heiress is an amazing book. I could bit out it down as I wanted to know more and more about Ruby's story. Was she really Ruby or another child that was returned to her parents disguised as their missing child? Camden was given a gift of being the "luckiest boy in North Carolina," but was that really true? The life of a McTavish was not all it really looked like from the outside looking in. Absolutely loved this book from beginning to end!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for giving me the opportunity to read this early. This book is out in January 2024.

I’ve got some mixed thoughts about it. While i was super interested in the story, the characters fell a little flat for me. And there was A-LOT going on. It was really hard to keep up with all the family members, and who was related and who wasn’t. I wish it would have been a little easier to follow along. I had to go back a few times to keep track of what was going on.

With that being said, it was still a good book. Basically evil people doing evil things and getting away with it. Wish it would have ended a little differently. Some of the twists i saw coming but there were a few that surprised me. It was an easy read and definitely had my full attention.

I really enjoyed this!! Rachel Hawkins doesn't ever miss for me, I really enjoy her writing and how she tells the story. The characters were really good as well and I was fully invested the whole story!

It took a minute to get into it, but once it got going, hard to put down! The letters and alternating POVs added to the suspense. Some of the twists were predictable, but the story had you hooked to keep going. The different story lines come together well and it's a fast read. Definitely recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC! Review live now on GoodReads and StoryGraph

I always know I'm going to get something good when I get an ARC of a Rachel Hawkins book, and this was no different. The story was unique, fun, exciting, and caught my interest. The story follows a woman and her husband as they go back to his childhood home, but all is not as it seems. Her husband is an adopted son of the heiress to a huge family fortune, and there is family strife, infighting, and secrets, so many secrets. The story had unpredictable but believable spoilers, and was hard to put down at all points. The characters were realistic, and the entire book was a great spooky season read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great thriller that won't take up too much of your time, but WILL take all of your attention for a few days.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure what I was into but the twists and turns were just incredible. I usually get the twist early but this was like mind blown and I enjoyed the ride.